Brad and I are coming up on our 17th year of working together full-time and 24th year of marriage. We often get asked how we can work together, and our first response is always "our offices are on opposite ends of the building". While this is true, and it does help, there are several other things that I feel have contributed to our ability to work together.
- Separate Job Responsibilities - When Brad joined REMEDI in 1996, we had established that he would be responsible for sales and administrative tasks and I would be responsible for anything technical - our internal systems, interviewing technical resources, consulting, etc. Although, our job responsibilities have changed over the years with our growth, we still have a separation of responsibilities.
- Respect Boundaries - Brad and I aren't always going to agree (and if you ask anyone at our office, we rarely do agree), but Brad has the final say in matters in his "area" of the business and I have the final say in my "area".
- Handle Differences As You Would With Anyone Else At The Office - When we do have differences, we handle them the same as we would anyone else in the office and argue about it at home :) - Now, this one has not been easy for me. When we have a disagreement at the office, I try not to show my disagreement and anger, but I don't do a good job of it. One of our associates has suggested that we have referee shirts hanging outside of our offices, so people can put them on when they attend a meeting with us! We do try to be professional at the office, but when we get home, all bets are off!
- Don't Be All Business - People know we are married, so why act like we aren't? Now I don't mean that you should be hugging on each other like you are on a date, but we joke around and "harass" each other like we do at home.
- Talk Outside Of The Office - While I know that many articles say that you should keep work at work, I think we have had many good discussions away from the office. Most of these are during a date night, walking the dog, or on vacation with our kids. It is well documented, that time away from work for vacation or conferences, away from the day-to-day, gets the creative juices flowing. Same applies for us, but we have the added benefit of someone with us to talk through any of our ideas.
